Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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When my sister texted to tell me that Sidney Poitier had passed away, I started crying. All I could do was conjure up the black and white image of a beloved movie, “A Patch of Blue,” the film that made me fall in love with Poitier. It’s a powerful movie that carries as strong a message about anti-racism as “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner,” without its political posturing and preachiness. It’s a simple story, about a young blind woman with an abusive mother and a loving but al...
The other day I was engaged in a surprisingly civil Twitter conversation with a person who identified as a “trans” woman. I took that to mean that she was a biological male, but presented as a female. I was right. It actually didn’t take much skill to figure it out, since being “trans” means being something other than what you formerly were. “Trans” is short for transition, and in order to transition, you need to have been somewhere or something else first. A butterfly does no...
Another Christmas has come and gone. Once again we got excited about the glittering decorations and the music and the Santa cookies. But you know, the holiday is not very woke. I mean, why is Mrs. Claus stuck at home while Santa gets the attention and the world tour? Why do we only see gingerbread “men” and who decided that Christmas was, um, “white?” So because we’ve evolved to the point where in order not to hurt anyone, we lie, I’ve re-examined these beloved classics th...
I regularly deal with women who’ve been sexually abused in other countries. Many of them do not report the assaults to law enforcement, because in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the police are unlikely to take rape and harassment seriously. These are generally patriarchal societies, where women are still considered property. There might be laws on the books, but they’re rarely applied. But if you live in the United States, where we have a female vice president, a fem...
Lately, I’ve started seeing all the usual Christmas decorations, books, gift suggestions, articles, foods and complaints about all the usual Christmas decorations, books, gift suggestions, articles, and foods. Some say they’re too over the top, some say it’s too early, and some say it’s not enough. I’m familiar with all of it, including the promises of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” with its haunting Vince Guaraldi score, the proliferation of Dickensian memorabilia and the magic...
Ahmaud Arbery is not here, but he heard the verdicts. He knows, in that place where his restless soul resides, that his death has been avenged. An overwhelming white jury in Georgia found that three white men had stalked a Black man for no legitimate reason, gunned him down and then tried to justify their actions under the false argument of “enforcing the law.” That is weighty, that is substantial, and that matters. Others will tie this to race, and only the most jaded or igno...
About a month ago, I was traveling on the subway in Philadelphia when I was attacked by a young African-American male in a hoodie, who was angry that I was filming him after he’d punched me in the head moments before. I made a report, and other than anger that Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is incapable of guaranteeing my safety for the increasingly expensive fare they charge, I’m fine. In fact, I’d basically forgotten about the incident until last week,...
I speak four languages fluently, read a fifth and am learning a sixth. I taught Spanish, French and Italian, and use all three languages on a daily basis in my immigration practice. I say this not to brag as much as to display how important language and its correct usage is to me. I’ve seen a lot of that dishonesty lately, with people making up words like “Latinx” and using plural pronouns for a single person who might have multiple identities but can only claim one complete s...
Anyone who was expecting Pope “abortion is murder” Francis to criticize Joe “abortion is health care” Biden was either naïve, or sorely disappointed last week when the two most powerful living Catholics met at the Vatican. According to Biden, the pope told him he was happy that our president was a “good Catholic” and that he had his permission to keep receiving Communion. Of course, there were no cameras, so it could just be Joe doing that plagiarism thing he’s perfected. Pers...
I was watching “The View” the other day, and while I’d normally come away from that experience scarred by the smirking face and screeching cackle of Joy Behar, this time was different. This time there was a woman with a brain at the table. This time, it was more than just a group of caffeinated dames pretending to have gravitas when they’re nothing more than Real(ly) Annoying Housewives. Condoleezza Rice was the guest. This is the first woman of color to fill the role of secr...
It’s easy these days to say that social media is toxic. People act in ways they’d never do in real life, because it isn’t real life. They act like feral wolves, because they can. The Twitter police don’t carry guns, and their badges are imaginary. In fact, social media is one big imaginary world, and we’re all way too wrapped up in things that don’t matter — the opinions expressed by strangers in public. Earlier this month, Jon Gruden’s life exploded because of some private...
I was watching TV the other night, and one of those ubiquitous campaign ads popped up. This time, it was a female candidate for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, discussing all of her accomplishments. Other than the fact that it was refreshingly positive and didn’t engage in any vitriol there was nothing particularly notable about the ad. But something stuck with me, something that others might consider completely innocuous but that has been bothering me for years. The c...
I remember when people were poring over photographs of President Trump’s inaugural back in 2017, trying to disprove his theory that it was the largest crowd in history. Clearly, it wasn’t. It wasn’t even close, which didn’t particularly bother me in the least. I was never one of those ladies who thinks size actually matters. But I changed my mind after I saw the photos from the recent PA March For Life, which took place in Harrisburg, Pa. It was the first time that Pennsyl...
Whenever I write about abortion, I get a lot of pushback from people who disagree. I fully admit that I’m an extremist when it comes to whether a child has a right to be born. There is no wiggle room for me, no negotiation, no gray areas. The “rape and incest” exceptions are what my old law professors used to call “red herrings” used to shut down discussion. I am a conservative, an anti-feminist, a woman of the far right. I was a Republican and I was a Democrat and I was an...
As expected, everyone’s apoplectic about the Supreme Court’s decision not to block the Texas abortion law. It’s no secret I have been advocating for the criminalization of abortion for decades. Many people disagree with me, and that’s OK. It’s a controversial topic, and there really is no common ground, despite what the peacemakers try and argue. And I fully admit that the Texas law is extreme and novel, to the extent that it allows private parties to enforce it. Revolutio...
I come from a family of fighting men. My cousin Adolph was a paratrooper who landed at Normandy on D-Day, and the parachute he used — stained with blood and dirt — was turned into my cousin Helen’s wedding dress. My father spent two years in Thule Greenland, at a godforsaken outpost at the North Pole during (no pun intended) the Cold War. My uncle Louie was a Marine, stationed in Beirut during one of the early crises in the 1950s, and my cousins Alex and Anthony served honor...
Last summer, I spent a few days standing in front of the Columbus statue at Marconi Plaza in South Philly. I wasn’t alone. A lot of good folk were there around me, laughing and singing and eating Wawa hoagies. We were there to show solidarity with the Italian American community of the city, since most of us were card-carrying members. We wanted to show our support and create a human line of defense against a mayor and the woke jokes in his administration who wanted to erase o...
I’ve been practicing immigration law for over 25 years, and I speak four languages fluently. I’ve traveled widely outside of the United States, and lived abroad for large stretches in the 1980s and ‘90s. All of this is to say that I am devastated with what’s happening in Afghanistan. Some readers will simply yawn and turn the page on this one. They’re more interested in being warriors against school boards than in hearing about the fall of Kabul. They’re focused on kids in mas...
Seven years ago, Lucy Flowers died. It’s taken a while for me to write those words in exactly that way — “Lucy Flowers died.” I’ve written about it on frequent occasion, but usually turn to euphemisms: “Left us.” I also employed “passed away,” “rejoined my father,” “passed on,” “shed this mortal coil,” “went to a better place,” “found peace,” “greeted the angels” and other Hallmark card turns of language. The clinical finality of “Lucy Flowers died” was something I avoid...
The other day, someone reminded me that I had a public Facebook page entitled “Christine Flowers, Columnist and Radio Host.” I rarely post there, which is why I’d almost forgotten about it. My old editor had suggested I create a public page after stalkers and people who didn’t like what I wrote (almost exclusively readers and agitators from the left) had done some very unsavory things. She thought that setting up a “public” space would protect me and my loved ones from the us...
After the NFL became a bastion of gridiron “wokeness,” I basically stopped paying attention. But I have to say my interest was piqued by a news item last month involving football, or rather, involving the people who don’t know how to throw a ball or run a pattern but who are expert in throwing shade and running amok. They would be the owners, administrators and “others” who ooze social consciousness, hug trees, wear masks and bleat about their concern for humanity. In other...
I was down the shore, enjoying the sea, the sun and the sweeping panorama of people without masks. Honestly, that was even more beautiful than the sunset over the Atlantic. One of those sunsets was observed from an outside patio at a fantastic pizzeria just outside of Atlantic City. My Sicilian Square with “Momma’s” sauce was so good, I had to tell “Momma’s” son how much I loved it. He replied, with an almost wistful expression in his eyes: “Thank you, I only wish I had Mo...
When Thurgood Marshall was strategizing his legal attack on segregation in the public school system of Topeka, Kan., he asked psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark to repeat an experiment they had first conducted 20 years earlier in the 1930s. In what has come to be known as the “Doll Test,” the Clarks handed African-American children two sets of dolls, one white and one Black. They then asked the children a number of questions, including “which doll looks the most like you...
Sometimes, the system works. A client of mine, an abused woman from El Salvador, recently was granted asylum. You might not think that’s important or impressive. It won’t change the world, and it won’t make the “Breaking News” segment on CNN. But for my client, it’s monumental. She doesn’t have to go back home to a country where she was sexually and physically abused. Her U.S. citizen children won’t lose their mother. Her sisters might find the courage within them to seek pr...
“Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C., so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name. Yes, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’” That’s a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. It’s comforting to those who believe that, if you wait long enough, you will be vindicated. Those who seek immediate justice, however, reject the...
